COLUMN: Need answers to some questions about school top level salary increases

By Jerry Bostic

Published: Thursday, April 25, 2013 at 07:30 PM.

It appears a bit irregular for Gaston County Schools Superintendent Reeves McGlohon to give raises in January to a chosen few high-level administrators without informing or getting a vote by the board.

The school board reacted in much the same manner as in the past — rubber stamping the issue and getting the superintendent off the hook for a bad decision.

There are three other deputy or assistant superintendents who did not get a single nickel salary increase or it was not reported.

One board member stated, “He’s got to run the school system however he sees fair. He does not have to answer to us.”

If that statement were true, why do we elect a school board?

Another school board member stated, “Most companies have pay ranges and, in this case, a few of those ranges needed to be adjusted.”

It appears a bit irregular for Gaston County Schools Superintendent Reeves McGlohon to give raises in January to a chosen few high-level administrators without informing or getting a vote by the board.

The school board reacted in much the same manner as in the past — rubber stamping the issue and getting the superintendent off the hook for a bad decision.

There are three other deputy or assistant superintendents who did not get a single nickel salary increase or it was not reported.

One board member stated, “He’s got to run the school system however he sees fair. He does not have to answer to us.”

If that statement were true, why do we elect a school board?

Another school board member stated, “Most companies have pay ranges and, in this case, a few of those ranges needed to be adjusted.”

No one mentioned or noted ranges.

Another board member stated that she trusts the superintendent will be sure the district pays salaries competitive with what they might receive elsewhere.

The real leaders in Gaston County Schools are classroom teachers.

Our teacher salaries are among the lowest in the state and nation. They also meet the “staff” criteria mentioned.

The cost to increase salaries could have placed one or two more teacher assistants in classrooms for the remainder of the year, January to June. This is totally unfair to teachers and other staff members in the system.

I want to remind you of several issues regarding “competitive” salaries.

Most, if not all, top administrators have directors and secretaries. Do they have competitive salaries already? All the personnel mentioned could apply to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and get paid a hefty range of salary options.

What about the remaining deputy superintendents and assistant superintendents that were not listed? Did they receive salary adjustments?

This begs the question of the cost of a cabinet of six deputy superintendents and four assistant superintendents at a cost of over $100,000 each, not including the directors and secretaries who work for those “leaders” and carry a lot of the load of work for them.

If directors were eliminated, then they could get paid more or eliminate the fat in the Central Office by dropping the assistant/deputy positions.

This begs the question, what work does that leave for the superintendent, who makes in excess of $170,000 per year plus a wonderful medical policy and a whole list of amenities not mentioned that no one in the school system gets? Perhaps, we could even call the cabinet “the million dollar plus cabinet?”

I have a problem with salary adjustments in the middle of the year. The only ones I am aware of are salary adjustments authorized by the state of North Carolina as a result of salary audit issues.

A school board should not have to constantly go into “closed session” to bail the superintendent out of a botched, unfair decision. If this is the way a school board chooses to operate, the school board should be dissolved and sent home. The board must not shirk from the proper examinations of the issues. They are not honoring their oath by bypassing things the public questions. The $8,000 we pay each of them must be for active participation and honest discussion of the issues.

We, the people, pay the $72,000 for the school board members’ salaries. We deserve an honest review of these kinds of issues. Gaston County citizens need school board members to review general operations of the school system and see to it that they are maintained fairly. Gaston County residents deserve it. Our children deserve it.